Meet the talented artist and weaver inspired by nature and Stonehenge!

By Josephine Grieve

Penny Simons is a willow weaver, textile designer, environmental artist and teacher based at the Southern Highlands Artists Collective (SHAC) in Robertson.

On her daily walk in Kangaloon fifteen years ago, Penny discovered a piece of willow on the roadside and this sparked her passion for working with nature and foraged materials.

Since then Penny has become known for her beautiful and sensitive engagement with environmental issues and her work is now featured in exhibitions in Sydney’s Botanical Gardens, NSW Regional Galleries and at the SHAC.

It was hard not to be mesmerised when we met Penny at her studio at the SHAC.

The walls are black, and the afternoon light streamed through the window acting as a spotlight, illuminating her latest project – brightly coloured banners with layers of rubbish foraged from beaches, printed textiles, seaweed and shiny plastic.

It almost felt like we were walking into a gallery, lit up perfectly by Mother Nature.

Here’s our chat with the wonderful Penny.

1 :: Has your artwork always been about the environment? 

I grew up in both England and New Zealand, but my education was in England and I did a degree in woven textiles at Art College there. 

After graduating, I won an award with a position for a year at Terence Conran’s Habitat in London – at the time, Conran was the anointed genius of the design world, and I learnt a lot about business as well as design. 

I came over to Australia and started a business called Cloth making hand-printed hand-dyed textiles for interior and fashion designers.

It was only after moving to Kangaloon and having my children that I became passionate about working with nature. But it was always there.

2 :: Who or what is your biggest inspiration?

Stonehenge! 

I grew up near Stonehenge and when I was at Art College, I lived close by.  

After finding the willow in Kangaloon, I went to England to take classes with highly respected willow weaver, Anne Marie O’Sullivan whose studio is also near Stonehenge. 

While there, I found a link to the Druids, the indigenous culture of England, and realised there is a spiritual connection and tribal element in my work. 

Indigenous cultures everywhere inspire me because of their connection with nature.

3 :: What materials do you like to use?

Weeds and rubbish! 

I use a lot of weeds that I find by foraging, mainly on roadsides like the dried lilies I found near the Kiama coast.

After I moved to Kangaloon with small children, I spent three years focused on the garden, learning about bio dynamics and permaculture. 

Then I found the willow which is a noxious weed in Australia and that’s when I started weaving with willows for the first time, teaching myself. 

The creative juices started flowing and I came back to myself after motherhood. The willow took me back to myself!

Recently, I’ve started working with plastic rubbish coughed up by the ocean. 

I like working with unwanted materials – that self-replicate like rubbish or grow in abundance like weeds – and turning them into something beautiful as a way of raising awareness around environmental issues. To bring back the old-fashioned art of being resourceful.

4 :: What is so special about willow weaving?

I didn’t realise when I started weaving in Kangaloon that there had been a huge renaissance of this ancient craft in England. 

They’ve always had basket weaving but many of the willow weaving farms had closed down because people were using manufactured materials. 

When I returned to south England after twenty-five years away, I found the traditional farms had been revived and were thriving. 

They’re making willow coffins, plant supports and organically woven willow forms. Everything you could imagine.

Even the Fortnum & Mason hampers are made there.

5 :: What advice would you give someone who wanted to become an environmental artist? 

To spend a lot of time outside – mindful time – alone in the country. 

I get all my ideas when I’m walking. 

In the Highlands, I walk everyday mostly on my own. 

Mindful time in nature unravels the brain!

6 :: Tell us about a creative highlight in your career.

The banners I’m working on right now for my exhibition Fragments of Nature.  

The banners bring all my previous work experiences together.

Textiles, foraged nature, light, shadows and colour. 

All the banners have a different theme but they’re all about the environment.

For example, fungi are the metaphor I use for the reciprocity banner inspired by the book Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard. 

Working with plastic rubbish, I’m influenced by pop culture and using primary colours in contrast to the earthy tones of my previous work. 

The warning tape across the top and bottom of the banner comes from ocean and is symbolic of the environmental crisis we are in right now.

7 :: You were one of the first artists to take a studio at the SHAC. How has being there helped your career?

I feel really supported by the other artists. 

The SHAC is brilliant for that.

I’ve been here nearly four years and I’ve noticed that everyone working here has matured and come on in leaps and bounds because they’re not alone in their art practice and every day work. 

I think the whole collective thing is important for artists and also for all of us in terms of the consciousness that we’re moving towards: from me to us. 

It’s all about collaboration, which is something I’d like to do more of in the future – collaborations in the community and with groups of artists.

8 :: We know you’re a fantastic teacher – what do you love about teaching? 

I have a passion for making and a passion for connecting people with their environment and the healing qualities of working with your hands and natural materials. 

All artists, anyone who works with their hands, know that the practice is healing. 

I was surprised to have good feedback about my workshops, so I plan to teach more at Green Door Studios. 

Later in the year, there will be a tortured willow workshop and also a community workshop where the students go out and find something in nature and then come back to do a drawing of it.

9 :: What are your other plans for the future?

I have an exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery in April called Fragments of Nature – funded by a Create NSW Covid Grant to make the work and take it out into Regional NSW and Greater Sydney. 

And I have a group show called Green in the artist studio gallery at the SHAC Robertson during the month of April.

10 :: What do you love about living, creating and working in the Highlands?

It is visually beautiful and changeable. 

The environment is more changeable in the Highlands than in Sydney. 

Even in one day there are changes: the seasons, the weather and the mists that come and go.

Penny Simons’ work can be seen and bought at her studio in the SHAC, Robertson every week from Friday to Monday, 10 am to 4 pm. Penny’s fab t-shirts and cards printed with images from her Fragments of Nature show are available from her studio too. You can follow Penny on Instagram to keep up to date with everything she’s doing! @penny_simons

She’s also got a workshop coming up at Green Door Studios at the SHAC Robertson. Don’t miss her Pysanky Easter Egg Decorating Workshop on 2 April 2022.

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